Iron Writer Challenge Update

And the winner is... me!

Thanks to everyone who voted for my flash fiction story, "Like a Steel Trap" during the Iron Writer Challenge #67.  I came in second in the reader poll but the panel of judges selected my story the winner!

Obviously, the judges were more discerning than the mob of philistines who voted for my competitors.

Now, on to the next challenge.  I think this win qualifies me for the upcoming Iron Writer Summer Solstice Open.  Details and shameless importuning for votes to follow....

Leonardo Cerebelli: Gadfly scientist and man about town

In preparation for an upcoming release of a deluxe omnibus edition of The Magnetron Chronicles, I've finally gotten round to finishing the biographical sketch of the redoubtable Leonardo Cerebelli....

Although no official written documents remain, credible accounts indicate that Leonardo Cerebelli was born in 1830 in New York’s Flatbush community to grocers Enzo and Aurora Cerebelli.  Nevertheless, Cerebelli was dogged for much of his life by rumors he was truly the son of notorious Cosa Nostra mafioso Nunzo “Il Capo” Tosto, fearsome patron of a post-feudal Sicilian cosca, or crime family.  Il Capo had reputedly sired dozens of illegitimate children and sent them abroad to appease his domineering spouse.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that Leonardo was spirited out of Sicily as an infant, hidden in a shipment of castelvetrano olives bound for New York.

Clever and industrious, young Leonardo excelled in his schoolwork but chafed at his duties in the family business.  This fractious state of affairs was typified by one of Leonardo’s earliest experiments, an inquiry into chaos theory in which the eight-year-old prodigy dropped hundreds of fragile inventory items to the floor and took detailed notes.  His father was horrified, as was his instructor, who labelled Leonardo’s pioneering work “unadulterated rubbish.”  Leonardo’s wry humor began to emerge as he coined derogatory Latin nicknames for regular customers, until his sly linguistic indiscretions were detected by one of his father’s business associates, after which time Leonardo took up Ancient Greek.

Read more »

Like a Steel Trap

I recently joined a great online writing group called The Iron Writer, which challenges writers to write 525-word "flash fiction" stories using four preselected elements from a mystery basket.  My first Iron Writer Challenge story is called "Like a Steel Trap" and includes the following four elements:

The Gods
Dice
Cocktails
Irrigation boots

That's right.  Irrigation boots.

I chose Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, and put together a gritty little tale that answers the question, "what if forgiving and forgetting just isn't an option?"

Read and vote, please! (Update: voting is now closed)

Crowd-subsidized Publishing

It's been a terribly long time since I have posted anything on this blog, and indeed, it's been a long time since I've written much of anything.  Why?  I've been busy working on a project called Fictivity Press.  In short, it's an experiment in what we are calling "crowd-subsidized publishing," a method of self-publishing similar to a vanity press (also known as subsidy press).  The main difference is that—instead of the writer paying to have his or her book prepared for publishing—Fictivity Press raises much of the funds through so-called crowd-funding sites such as IndieGoGo.

The first book selected for Fictivity Press's BookLaunch program is Pete Oxley's The Infernal Aether, which I've already invested a lot of time in.  I'll be doing the line editing and proofreading for the book some time after the IndieGoGo campaign has ended.  We're off to a very convincing start on this inaugural project but we can use all the help we can get.  You can pre-order an electronic version of the book for a contribution as small as $5.00.  Please visit the campaign home page and contribute what you can, even if it's just helping spread the word.

Is "crowd-subsidized publishing" for real?  So far, it looks pretty good!

Pantsers vs. Plotters

I've written here, here, and there on the topic of creating plots, outlines and story lines in fiction, but I still frequently become embroiled in the "Pantser vs. Plotter" wars.  In other words, some writers sit down and write "by the seat of their pants," while others meticulously plot every jot and tittle before writing a line.  For some reason, many seem to think this is an all-or-nothing decision, but I disagree.

I am a notorious fence-sitter, which permits me the luxury of criticizing every ideological tribe with abandon.  With respect to writing, I find this manifests as a virulent strain of Plotting Pantserism, as I prefer to use a hybrid method combining elements--and advantages--of both strategies.  Lee Strayer at Atomic 27 Media has interviewed me on my peculiar (but eminently sensible) approach, and featured an excerpt of our conversation in his latest Magnetic Wireless podcast.

Give it a listen, won't you?  I mean, can't we all just get along?